Vero Beach selection committee outlines evaluation process, schedules interviews for two waterfront proposals

City of Vero Beach staff briefed the appointed selection committee on Wednesday about how it will evaluate two proposals received Dec. 17 for the waterfront RFP, the role outside consultants will play in scoring, and the schedule leading to City Council consideration in April.

The city’s purchasing manager, John O’Brien, told the committee the RFP evaluation uses five criteria and that “there's 5 criteria in which you'll evaluate the proposals and 3 of them will be using their expertise to provide some guidance to, help assist in making your score.” Project manager Peter (Polk/Polkar) said the meeting would place greater emphasis on the written evaluation criteria than in prior rounds: “this time we're gonna focus more on those criteria.”

The nut graf: the committee will compare the two proposals against the city's approved master concept plan and a checklist in section 2.7 of the RFP. Consultants Stantec (design/engineering/planning) and PFM (financial consultants) will provide recommended scores that together account for roughly 50 of the 100 total evaluation points, but committee members retain discretion to deviate from those recommendations if they document reasons.

Most important details

- Scoring framework: The RFP divides 100 points across five factors: developer vision for the site (30 points, with 20 tied to…